Meanwhile, I called upon the Ice and formed a huge tower of it under my feet, raising me into the air forty or fifty feet. Then, with a thought, I pulled in the power of the Shield and released myself from invisibility. I wanted them all to see me now, and I wanted them to assume much more than what had actually happened. It was time they really and truly feared me beyond even what they should.

  Their body language revealed the surprise of seeing me appear out of nowhere, standing above them on a tower of Ice. A deathly silence came over the place, and they all stared.

  With a voice as loud as I could boom out of my innards, I began to speak.

  “It's over, Kenji! It's over, all of you! Your mindless devotion to the Stompers is useless and it's time to end!” I shot a slew of Ice at Kenji to make my point. Just before it reached him, I made it melt and devour him and then freeze again, encompassing him in a huge ball of frozen water. His body stood rigid in a position of defense, his mouth open, clawed hands reaching forward, his wings stretching out to take flight. The other Ka stared and stayed silent.

  And then came the real kicker. I knew it was a long shot, but I had to try it, to spread the word before everything came to a head in the days to come.

  “All of you are still human, deep down inside! You can see that I'm gaining in power every day! You have one more chance to come back before the end! Take it, because the day is coming when everything will be decided once and for all!”

  With a buildup of more Ice below, I made the tower grow another twenty feet higher.

  “In the end, only one side will be the right one!”

  I closed my eyes, knowing that what I did next would be the hardest thing I'd done so far. Straining my mind, throwing every ounce of thought and will and energy into the power of my Gift, I pictured the thousands of stone blocks below, imagined Ice forming under and around them, building and building until the beds and those who rested on them were completely enclosed, isolated from the Ka.

  Swishing and swirling sounds filled the cavern, and I knew the Ice had jumped into action. I looked down, and saw that everything had happened just as I'd envisioned it. Every stone bed in sight was encased in huge blocks of the cold stuff.

  Every other time I'd used the Ice, it had always defied gravity—my control over it overpowering that nifty little law of nature. Counting on that, I lifted the thousands of blocks of Ice into the air. With a crackling thunder of creaks and groans, they broke contact with the hard stone floor and floated upward until they hovered, bobbing slightly, twenty feet from the ground. My heart pounded with the mental strain, my breath running ragged. The effort exerted on my brain fed to my muscles, and they grew taut, as if I were actually holding the beds up with my own strength. I knew I couldn't do this much longer, and panic filled me as I realized that maybe I'd bitten off more than I could chew.

  But I didn't give up. Using my hands as symbolic guides, I directed the countless beds up and toward the cave that led to the outside. I'd never planned on taking things this far, but I knew I couldn't leave these people behind, left to endless hours of fear and torment inside their heads.

  The ice-covered blocks shot upward, like an army of futuristic warships heading out to battle in the depths of space. My mind directed them as I looked, made them fall into order, forming into a single-file line as they flew toward the exit from the cavern.

  But it had gone too far. My strength was gone.

  Before even one block had entered the cave far above, I collapsed to my knees, the pressure and the strain too great.

  The formation of stone beds stopped their flight, faltered in midair.

  And then they began to fall.

  Time seemed to slow to a standstill. I fell onto my back, staring upward so that I could see the tragedy that I'd caused. Every one of the ice-covered beds had made it hundreds of feet into the air, and they were now plummeting to the cavern floor. It didn't take a genius to realize that when they crashed to the ground, those innocent lives they bore would be crushed and sent to their deaths.

  Down they came, like a dumped load of bricks. Just to make it perfect, some of them were going to land on me. Of course the Shield would then protect me, and the irony of it all would be complete.

  I closed my eyes, and without any strength left in my body, I made one last ditch effort to call upon the Ice. Almost treating it like a prayer, I asked it to take these people to safety outside.

  My brain shut down from exhaustion, and all thoughts went black.

  When I woke up, the tower of ice was gone. At least, I was no longer lying on it. Instead, I could feel the cold hard stone of the cavern floor below me. My head pounded and dizzying lights swam before my eyes as I rolled over onto my side and tried to pull myself together. I coughed and then rolled onto my back and rubbed my eyes and forehead. Everything was very dark, and I slowly made myself stand up, steadying myself against the sudden rush of nausea.

  Seconds later, my eyes adjusted, and I saw what was around me.

  Encircling me, only four or five feet away on all sides, was a pack of Shadow Ka. Behind them were more, and behind them even more. They went in all directions for as far as I could see, standing there, wings folded in, looking at me without exception. And they were all silent except the occasional snort or grunt, or the shuffling of wings and feet.

  I did a slow three-sixty, turning and looking at all of them, wondering what was going on. What had happened to all those people on the beds? How long had I been out? A deep misery filled my chest, and my eyes watered with the coming of tears. Not only had I failed to scare them with my power, I'd made it worse. They would never come back to their human sides now that they had seen my limits. They would win.

  “What!” I yelled, my voice choking up. “What do you want?”

  I knew the Shield would protect me, and I felt no fear at all. But I didn't care anymore. Hope had seemed to abandon me without so much as an apology before it left. I fell back down to the ground and buried my head in my arms, wishing the Ka would just go away and leave me alone. But then something happened.

  A strange noise arose—an indescribable one; one that made me think of wet clay being squished through fingers.

  I poked my head up, and saw the source of the noise.

  The Shadow Ka were morphing into humans.

  In the semi darkness, their metamorphosis was nothing but a blur of movement and shadow, but soon there were no more Shadow Ka, only humans. They looked sick and pale, their clothes tattered and worn.

  Their clothes. It hit me how bizarre it was that when they changed back into humans they had clothes on. It was the first time I'd thought of it. The Shadow Ka as beasts did not have clothes. So how did they when their bodies changed back?

  One of them spoke, scattering my thoughts.

  “Why do you stare at us like that?” he asked. It was a Japanese man, his black hair matted to his head and sweat covering the rest of him like varnish. His clothes were damp and I could smell his body odor from three feet away. It seemed turning into a Shadow Ka made for one heck of a day at the office.

  “Why?” he continued. “Does it shock you that we don't want to be monsters? Do you think we enjoy having our lives taken over by those things?”

  My head was having a hard time computing what he meant. Had they just removed themselves from the Ka—kicked them out?

  “Are you … are you free?” I asked.

  “I don't know,” he moaned, a look of pain on his face. “Most of our brothers, or what used to be our brothers, fled right after you fell. They somehow got Kenji out too. But those you see here, we listened to your message. We fought, and we gained our lives back. For now at least.”

  “Really?” It showed how little faith I had in my earlier message that I was so shocked it had worked on some of them. “You could hear me—it really worked?”

  “Only time will tell.”

  I looked around at the dejected men and women, and saw that there were probably fifty or sixty of them. That meant that hundreds of others had not heard, or at least not listened.

  “Can you help me?” I asked. “You may know a lot that could help us beat them once and for all.”

  The man shook his head, and then let out a forced laugh. “Don't look to us to win your war, boy. What can we do against the likes of those demons?”

  “You can tell us how their minds work, how they think. Don't you know anything about their plans, or where others are gathered? Do you remember anything?”

  “I'm sorry, we can't help you. Just go, and leave us. We have families to find, friends to gather. Before the end comes.”

  My pity for them turned to disbelief. “You're going to give up? After what you just did to escape from them?”

  “Escape!” the man yelled, spitting all over me. “You think we've escaped? Better to be one of them than to live in the spell of the Stompers for the rest of eternity. Better to serve them than to feed them! You have no idea!” He turned, walked away a few steps, and then stopped, lowering his head to his chest.

  “You cannot win, Jimmy Fincher. You cannot win.”

  He walked away toward a far staircase, and without a word, the rest of them followed, silent and sullen.

  “What's your name?” I yelled to him. He ignored me. “What's your name!”

  He paused again, fifty feet away, and then turned toward me.

  “My name is Sato. But soon I will not even have that.”

  And then he was gone, lost in the crowd.

  I watched them until they were halfway up the long staircase, full of a hurt that was new to me. I didn't know those people any more than I knew the president of Timbuktu. But to see the despair in their eyes, to know that they had lost all hope—it filled me with much of the same, and it was almost too much to bear.

  I turned away, and began figuring out what I needed to do next.

  Nearby there was a huge puddle of water, a small pond almost, that had collected in a large indentation in the rocky floor of the cavern. Figuring it was the residue of the melted tower of Ice I'd created, I looked around and tried to get my bearings.

  It only took about two seconds for me to realize something that almost made me fall down.

  There were no stone beds to be seen, anywhere. They were all gone.

  Wondering where the energy came from, I burst into a full run and headed for the stairwell we'd come down earlier.

  By the time I reached the top of the stairs, it felt like tiny dragons had invaded my body, burning me with their flames from the inside out. My heart was pumping, and sweat covered me from head to toe. I walked to the edge of the landing for one last look down into the cavern as I caught my breath, hands on my knees.

  It was so different now. No stone blocks, no people, no Shadow Ka. The place was so empty it seemed even bigger than the first time I saw it, which I would've thought impossible. I couldn't help but wonder how the whole mountain didn't just collapse with this big hole in the middle of it.

  I straightened up, and felt like I was leaving a place I'd spent half my life. So much had happened in such a short time, it was like a part of me would always stay there after I'd been long gone.

  With legs like rubber, I reached deep down for some special Jimmy energy, and headed for the dark cave. The massive stone door was wide open, which was incredibly lucky, because I hadn't thought of it once until that very moment. Who opened it? I wondered, as I walked through the opening. Did the Ice push it open?

  The odd light bulbs still worked, making the whole place look like the lair of some serial killer. Of course, that's exactly what the Ka and the Stompers were, I thought, except that they were doing something even worse. What they did to people was a living death. My body shuddered at the thought.

  The tunnel wound its way up and up, and my legs cursed me the whole way. It had seemed long before but not that long.

  I stumbled and fell. The Shield broke my fall. I found myself wishing it could protect me from fatigue, but that was probably asking a bit much. Then it hit me that maybe I could make a chair out of Ice and float it along the tunnel with me sitting on it. With my mental state just as exhausted as my physical body, I didn't think it would work. Maybe a trick to try later.

  On and on I climbed my way up the slowly ascending tunnel. On what seemed like my millionth step since leaving the cavern, I saw a brighter light ahead. Energized by the thought of getting out of that place, I stumbled forward. Soon I heard the sound of crashing water, and my heart jumped for joy.

  I came upon the exit, and saw the pool of water beyond it and the backside of the cascading waterfall. The sun was hitting it dead on from the other side, shooting sparkling rays of light onto the face of the small lake, its reflection both beautiful and blinding. Especially after having been in the relative darkness of the cave for so long. With the disappearance of the Ka, the taint must have lessened considerably for the sun to be so bright. I shielded my eyes and stepped out of the mountain and into the cool water.

  I stepped gingerly across the rocky bottom, knowing that my legs were almost shot, and headed for the side of the waterfall we'd come from originally. The spray of the falls felt so wonderful, and I reached down and brought some cool water to my mouth with both hands. The long trip had made me a little thirsty.

  I climbed up onto the rocks beside the waterfall and into the full daylight.

  My breathing stopped when I saw what was waiting for me.

  It was hard to take it all in at once.

  The first thing I noticed were the stone beds everywhere I looked—in the clearing, scattered among the trees, filling the mountain road, packed tightly together. And they were all occupied, the people still in their comas. There had to be some kind of magic associated with those stupid blocks of rock—something that helped keep those people asleep and fed and undisturbed.

  My heart soared when I saw them, however, because it meant that at least they were still alive. The Ice had come through in a way I'd never imagined, answering my last desperate prayer before I'd lost consciousness. Once again, the power of my Gifts staggered my mind.

  I continued to take in the bizarre scene that surrounded me.

  Four people were tied up and hanging from nearby trees. They hung upside down, their feet attached to the trees by a rough-looking rope. Although the rising sun was shining right in my eyes, I could tell who three of them were. The fourth one was a mystery.

  I ran down the slope of the open clearing and headed for the trees where they were captive. As I got closer, I realized they were also blindfolded and gagged, and I could only hope they were still alive. Before I had even reached the trees, I used the Ice to freeze and break apart their ropes. Then I let them down slowly with another rope made of Ice. A couple of grunts from someone let me know they were indeed alive.

  Tanaka. Miyoko. Rayna. Some stranger.

  But Hood was gone.

  I quickly helped them up and broke off their gags and blindfolds before they could even try. Rayna doubled over and puked, the sudden transition from being upside down to right side up too much for her. Tanaka ran over and hugged Miyoko tight, and I joined them. It was especially good to see Miyoko and Rayna alive and well, since they were the whole point of us going there in the first place. The stranger stood to the side, quiet and reserved.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  Tanaka pointed to Rayna. “You tell, please.” Then he resumed hugging his daughter, making sure she was okay.

  Rayna came up to me. It had been a while since I'd seen her black hair and her scarred face and her green leather outfit. She was an odd duck, but she meant the world to me.

  “The four okisaru brought us here,” she said, “and soon after that the Icy stone blocks came flying out of the mountain. How did you do that?”

  “I have no idea. It was the Ice—that's all I know.”

  Rayna shook her head. “You are an amazing creature, Jimmy Fincher.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know. So what else happened?”

  “Hundreds of Shadow Ka came flying out of the cave, screaming and yelling like they were extremely upset, which I'm sure they were. They attacked us, and we were helpless. But the rest of the okisaru showed up, turned into some kind of freaky flying lions or something, and started beating the Ka back. They chased them away and we haven't seen them or the okisaru since.”

  “Then how in the heck did you end up in the tree? And where's Hood?”

  “Hood escaped with his Bender Ring. As for the tree, you can thank him for that,” she replied, pointing to the stranger.

  He walked up to me. He was a young man, not much older than I, dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. His hair was blond and scraggly, and his face was covered in the beginnings of a beard. He looked like any normal kid you'd see on his way to high school, late for class because he'd slept in.

  “Who are you?” I asked, realizing too late that I'd been was kind of rude.

  He held out his hand. I took it, and he gave me a firm handshake.

  “My name is Justin.” He turned to the others, gave a mocking smile, and then motioned to them.

  “But they call me The Half.”

  “The Half?” I said. “Rayna told me about you. She said something about how I wouldn't be able to believe it when I met you.”

  He raised his eyebrows. “Yeah?”

  “Well, no offense, bro, but you don't seem that amazing.”

  “You're not so mind boggling, either.”

  “Really?” I started to form a ball of Ice to prove him wrong but Rayna yelled at me.

  She walked forward and put her arms around both of our shoulders.

  “Well, I can see you guys are getting off to a great start.” She turned to me. “Jimmy, we call him that because he can be in two places at once. Sometimes more.”